Once upon a time, a young reporter named Sarah Jane Smith met a time
traveller called the Doctor. In the TARDIS, Sarah witnessed wonders and
horrors beyond her imagination, from the dreaded Daleks to the evil god Sutekh. But all good things must
end, and eventually the Doctor was forced to return Sarah to Earth.

Twenty years later, Sarah Jane -- ever the intrepid reporter -- met the Doctor again. She
was reminded that life on Earth can be as much of an adventure as a life
spent travelling through time and space.

The Sarah Jane Adventures, a Doctor Who spin-off which ran
from January 2007 to October 2011, chronicled the rest of her story.

Having been inspired to defend the Earth during her travels with the
Doctor, investigative journalist Sarah Jane
Smith continued to seek out new adventures from her home at 13
Bannerman Road in London.

Although he was separated from Sarah Jane for a time, dedicating his
resources to closing a black hole which threatened Earth, the robot dog
K-9 was finally able to rejoin his mistress
and take his place at her side during her adventures.

Invasion Of The Bane was
produced by Susie Liggat, and the remainder
of the season by Matthew Bouch. Doctor
Who producer Phil Collinson served as
executive producer alongside Julie Gardner and
Russell T Davies.

Maria Jackson has just moved into a new house with her recently-divorced
father when she becomes aware of strange goings-on involving her
reclusive neighbour, journalist Sarah Jane Smith. But things get even
weirder when Maria's new friend, Kelsey, invites her on a tour of a
factory which produces the mysteriously addictive energy drink
Bubbleshock. There, Maria rescues a strange boy, and has nowhere to turn
but to Sarah Jane herself. Together, they must discover the connection
between Bubbleshock and an alien plan to conquer the Earth.

Maria and Luke begin their first day at their new school, where they
quickly befriend charming troublemaker Clyde Langer. But not everything
seems right at Park Vale Comprehensive: the food in the cafetaria has
gone off, there's a mysterious new technology wing, and some of the
teachers have developed a peculiar problem with flatulence. With Sarah
Jane's help, the three kids discover that schools all over the world
have been infiltrated by the Slitheen, who intend to wreak their
vengeance on the entire planet.

Clyde joins Maria and Luke in assisting Sarah Jane with her
investigations.

Rumours of a ghostly nun lead Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde to the Lavender
Lawns retirement home. There, Luke makes the acquaintance of dotty old
Bea Nelson-Stanley. But Bea has secrets of her own, and one of them is
an alien talisman she has been hiding for decades, and now entrusts to
Luke's care. The talisman is actually the key to a portal leading to the
planet of the Gorgons -- the infamous monsters of Greek myth with the
power to turn men into stone -- and the nuns who serve the last Gorgon
on Earth will stop at nothing to get it back.

Lance, a classmate of Maria, Luke and Clyde's, goes missing following a
visit to Combat 3000, a popular new laser tag-like facility.
Investigating, Sarah discovers that there have in fact been a number of
disappearances associated with Combat 3000 locations across the country.
The abductor is actually the alien General Kudlak, who is using the game
arena to identify young people with the greatest aptitude for becoming
warriors. Unbeknownst to Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde decide to
participate in Combat 3000 -- and soon become Kudlak's latest targets.

Maria wakes up one morning to discover, much to her horror, that she is
the only one who remembers Sarah Jane Smith. Clyde has never heard of
her; Luke is nowhere to be found; and a woman named Andrea Yates now
lives in Sarah's house. Maria becomes convinced that Andrea has
something to do with the vanished Sarah. But as she begins to uncover a
tragedy in the distant past that involves both women, will Maria become
the next person to be erased from history?

The lives of Sarah Jane and her young friends are thrown into turmoil
when a news report reveals that Luke was not an artificial creation of
the Bane after all, but in fact a real boy named Ashley Stafford. Soon,
Sarah is facing accusations of child abduction while Maria confronts the
prospect of being barred from ever seeing her mentor again. She and
Clyde become determined to get to the bottom of things, and together
they unearth a conspiracy between an old foe and one of their closest
allies.

Making History

With the enormous popularity of the new Doctor Who series amongst
younger viewers, Children's BBC asked executive producer Russell T
Davies to create a spin-off series targetted at that audience. The
result was The Sarah Jane Adventures, which debuted with a
one-hour special, Invasion Of The
Bane, on New Year's Day 2007, followed by a full ten-episode
season in the autumn. In-between, it was decided to replace original
castmember Porsha Lawrence-Mavour with Daniel Anthony; Lawrence-Mavour
was reportedly a disruptive presence on set.

Season Two: Family Matters

The Characters

Rani Chandra was an aspiring journalist who
succeeded Maria as Sarah Jane's neighbour across the road and helped
Sarah defeat Odd Bob the Clown.

Strange lights in the sky draw Sarah Jane, Maria, Luke and Clyde to a
radio tracking station. There, they discover that the facility has been
invaded by Commander Kaagh, the last surviving Sontaran from their
recent invasion of Earth. Kaagh is determined to avenge his people, and
initiates a program to send all manmade satellites crashing down onto
the Earth's nuclear reactors, annihilating the planet. Maria, already
grappling with the prospect of leaving for America with her father,
finds herself involving both her parents in a last-ditch attempt to save
the world.

Maria reluctantly decides to move away with her father so that he can
accept a new job.

The Chandra family moves into the Jacksons' house on Bannerman Road.
Sarah Jane is adamant that their daughter, Rani, not become caught up in
her adventures, but Rani is already being haunted by a malevolent clown.
Clyde becomes convinced that the clown is connected to a spate of
disappearances from their school, and with Rani's help they follow the
lead to a circus museum. Confronted by the museum's eerie proprietor,
Sarah discovers that the kidnapper is none other than the Pied Piper of
old.

One night, a blazing light from the heavens strikes a small-time shyster
named Martin Trueman. Within days, Trueman has risen to fame for his
uncanny astrological ability, seeing into the past and predicting the
future. Sarah Jane suspects that there is a sinister force working
through Trueman. But when Mr Smith is incapable of analysing the
astrologer's abilities, Luke realises that Trueman must be possessed by
a power which comes from beyond the universe itself.

A classmate of Luke, Clyde and Rani's discovers an alien pendant which
allows the wearer to control the minds of others. But the power comes at
a terrible cost, and Rani is able to retrieve the artefact and bring it
to Sarah Jane's for safekeeping. Sarah, however, is out of town... while
Clyde's long-absent father, Paul, is back in town, trying to reconnect
with his son. When Clyde accidentally gives his dad the opportunity to
steal the pendant, Paul quickly finds the lure of its power
irresistible.

In August 1951, Eddie and Barbara Smith inexplicably left their infant
daughter, Sarah Jane, by the side of the road and, moments later,
perished in a traffic accident. In the present day, Sarah Jane discovers
a time fissure leading back to her home town of Foxgrove in the summer
of 1951. Despite her fears that she's falling into a trap, Sarah can't
resist altering the course of events to save her parents' lives. In so
doing, she succumbs to a plot by the Trickster to irrevocably alter the
Earth's history.

Mrs Wormwood returns, and claims to be in need of Sarah Jane's help. She
alleges that she is being hunted by the Bane due to her failure during
their invasion of Earth. In retaliation, she wants to foil the Bane's
plan to resurrect an ancient interstellar conqueror named Horath. She
requires information stored in UNIT's Black Archive, and Sarah Jane
reluctantly agrees to approach her old friend, Brigadier
Lethbridge-Stewart, for assistance. But it is actually Mrs Wormwood --
in allegiance with Sontaran Commander Kaagh -- who is plotting to revive
Horath, and thereby dominate the galaxy.

A man calling himself Ambassador Ranius of the Galactic Alliance
teleports into Sarah Jane's attic, much to the bewilderment of Sarah,
Luke, Clyde and Rani. The Ambassador claims to have been despatched to
express the Alliance's thanks to Sarah for all of her accomplishments.
Soon, however, K-9 materialises in the attic as well, accusing the man
of being a Slitheen in disguise. As events get weirder and weirder, it
appears that the robot dog has fallen into a trap...

Making History

For its second full season, The Sarah Jane Adventures once again
experienced a departure from the main cast. With Yasmin Paige's
education precluding her appearance in every episode, it was decided to
write the Jackson family out of the programme in The Last Sontaran, although Maria and Alan
would both make cameo appearances later in the year. Rani Chandra and
her family were introduced to fill the void left by the Jacksons.

Meanwhile, perennial Doctor Who favourite Brigadier
Lethbridge-Stewart, played once again by Nicholas Courtney, appeared in
the season finale Enemy Of The Bane.
This marked the fortieth anniversary of the Brigadier's first appearance
in Doctor Who, and his first appearance on television since
1993.

Season Three: All Our
Yesterdays

The Production Team

Matthew Bouch departed The Sarah Jane Adventures, while Piers Wenger (who was in the process of taking over
for Julie Gardner) became the show's third executive producer.

Sarah Jane and her friends investigate what seems to be a meteorite, but
turns out to be a crashlanded Judoon prisoner transport. On board was an
intergalactic murderer named Androvax -- a Veil, capable of inhabiting
the bodies of others. Sarah Jane forges an uneasy alliance with Judoon
Captain Tybo in an effort to recapture Androvax, but falls prey to the
Veil herself. Now in possession of all of Sarah Jane's knowledge and
weapons, Androvax sets his sights on Genetec Systems -- whose nanobot
technology will help him escape Earth, or destroy it in trying.

Rani is feeling alienated from Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde. When her old
friend Sam asks her to come back home to Danemouth to investigate a
mystery, she's quick to accept. Stories of disappearances at a derelict
amusement park lead Rani to an alien girl named Eve, who crashlanded on
Earth and was hidden in the park by its caretaker, Harry. But Eve and
her damaged vessel possess devastating powers that transcend time and
space, and when Sarah Jane and her companions come looking for Rani,
their actions may put their own futures at risk...

Eve's Ship uses the black hole that K-9 was monitoring as fuel, allowing
the robot dog to return to Sarah Jane.

Sarah Jane has a surprise for Luke: she's been secretly dating a man
named Peter Dalton, and has accepted his proposal of marriage. Luke is
delighted to see his mother so happy, but Clyde and Rani are suspicious
-- especially when it turns out that nobody has lived in Peter's house
for several weeks. They're unable to convince the others that anything
is amiss, however, and the day of the wedding quickly arrives. But Peter
does indeed harbour a dark secret: he is a pawn of the Trickster, and
this time not even the Doctor may be in time to save Sarah Jane.

Professor Rivers of the Pharos Institute invites Sarah Jane to join her
in her investigation of Ashen Hill Manor. The estate has been plagued by
rumours of hauntings and mysterious disappearances for centuries, dating
back to 1665 when it was home to the purported alchemist, Erasmus
Darkening. Sarah Jane is skeptical at first... until Professor Rivers
vanishes as well. With spirits roaming the secret passages that riddle
the house, and something malevolent stalking the night outdoors, Sarah
Jane must find out what really happened in Ashen Hill Manor three
hundred and fifty years ago.

Clyde has developed a talent for painting, and a piece of his artwork
earns his class a trip to see the Mona Lisa, which is on display
at a London gallery. But suddenly, something hidden in the bowels of the
gallery brings the painting to life. Mona Lisa turns out to be a
sinister woman gifted with unearthly powers, who searches the gallery
for her mysterious missing “brother”. Investigating, Sarah
Jane is trapped in a painting by Mona Lisa, leaving only Luke, Clyde and
Rani to stop the threat and restore Mona Lisa to her frame.

Sarah Jane undercovers a new scheme by the Slitheen to destroy the
Earth, but the villains are stopped instead by the Blathereen, members
of another family on Raxacoricofallapatorius. The Blathereen profess
nothing but goodwill towards the human race, and offer Sarah Jane the
gift of Rakweed, a hardy and nutrititious plant which can grow in even
the most hostile of environments. Although Sarah Jane does not entirely
trust the Blathereen, she decides to take a chance and accept the
Rakweed -- little realising that the Blathereen have their own sinister
designs on Earth.

Making History

For the third season of The Sarah Jane Adventures, an agreement
was reached for K-9 to join the main cast, and so the events of The Mad Woman In The Attic were
arranged to provide K-9 with a release from the extra-dimensional space
in which he had been voluntarily trapped since Invasion Of The Bane. A new
broadcast schedule was introduced for the programme, which now aired
twice weekly.

Season Four: The Circle Game

The Production Team

With the departure of Julie Gardner, Nikki Wilson (nee Smith) became an
executive producer. She was replaced as producer by Brian Minchin, formerly a script editor on
Torchwood and an assistant producer on its epic serial Children Of Earth.

Luke is wracked with insecurity after he decides to take early admission
to Oxford University. With the day of his departure from Bannerman Road
looming ever closer, he finds himself dreaming for the first time ever
-- terrible nightmares which play upon his worries about leaving behind
his home, mum and friends. These dreams are the work of an entity who
calls himself the Nightmare Man, who is feeding upon Luke's fears in
order to manifest in the real world, and plunge all humanity into an
eternal state of bad dreams...

Androvax the Veil returns to Earth, but this time he claims to be
seeking Sarah Jane's help. Dying of an incurable poison, Androvax is
trying to recover a spaceship which carries the cryogenically-frozen
survivors of his doomed planet. The trail has led him to a mysterious
vault hidden beneath a disused asylum in London, but it is guarded by
androids led by the impassive Mr Dread. With the fate of an entire
species at stake, Sarah Jane is forced into an uneasy alliance with one
of her most sinister enemies, little realising that Androvax's designs
may have terrible consequences for the Earth.

UNIT arrives at Sarah Jane's door with terrible news: the Doctor is
dead, his body brought to Earth by alien undertakers called the
Shansheeth. Sarah Jane refuses to believe that her friend is gone for
good, and only reluctantly agrees to travel to a UNIT base for the
Doctor's hastily-assembled funeral. And she isn't the only skeptic: also
in attendance is Jo Jones, Sarah Jane's predecessor aboard the TARDIS,
who is equally convinced that the Doctor is still alive. But it falls to
Clyde and Rani -- and Jo's grandson Santiago -- to discover that they
have fallen into a trap laid by the Shansheeth.

One night, Mr Smith detects an untraceable alien signal. Nothing seems
amiss... until the next morning, when Rani and Clyde awaken to find that
their parents, Sarah Jane, and indeed everybody on Bannerman Road have
all vanished. Even Mr Smith does not respond to their commands. Heading
into town, they find that London is deserted, with only a frightened boy
named Gavin left behind. But suddenly, strange sounds fill the air,
alien symbols appear on every television screen, and robots roam the
streets. Can the two teenagers solve the mystery of the empty
planet?

Sarah Jane is summoned by the mysterious Shopkeeper, who warns her that
three fragments of chronosteen, a metal forged in the time vortex, have
been lost in the Earth's past. Chronosteen has the power to change
history, and so the Shopkeeper sends Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani back in
time, each with a mission to recover one of the pieces. Clyde finds
himself fighting Nazis along the English coast. Rani becomes caught up
in the intrigue of the court of Lady Jane Grey. And Sarah Jane must
unearth the secret of a haunted house, and its tragic connection to the
future...

Sarah Jane is feeling old, her memory becoming unreliable. When she,
Clyde and Rani confront a platoon of alien invaders, she forgets vital
equipment and places all their lives in danger. Only the intervention of
mysterious alien-hunter Ruby White averts disaster. Soon, Sarah Jane
begins to consider retirement, as she comes to see Ruby as her natural
successor. But there is more to Sarah Jane's condition -- and to Ruby
White -- than meets the eye, and it will take the combined forces of
Clyde, Rani, Luke, Mr Smith and K-9 to save their friend.

Making History

Such was the BBC's confidence in The Sarah Jane Adventures that
it was renewed for two additional seasons, as announced on March 4th,
2010. However, Tommy Knight's educational commitments forced him to take
a reduced role in the season; except for occasional cameos, he played a
prominent part in only the first and last stories of the fourth
season.

Season Five: A Life Of Adventure

The Characters

Bred to be a weapon in a genocidal alien war, Sky
Smith was spirited away by the mysterious Shopkeeper and brought
to Earth to be raised by Sarah Jane as her daughter.

An alien baby is abandoned on Sarah Jane's doorstep, prompting her to
investigate the child's mysterious background. She soon discovers that
there are two aliens at work in London: a humanoid Fleshkind and a
boron-based Metalkind, representatives of species which have been at war
for generations. The baby, whom Sarah Jane names “Sky,” is a
genetically-engineered weapon developed by the Fleshkind. However, the
plan to wipe out the Metalkind will endanger not only Sky, but the
entire Earth -- and when Sky abruptly ages to teenagerhood, Sarah Jane
realises that time is running out.

When fish rain from the sky above Ealing, a clue from Mr Smith leads
Sarah Jane, Clyde, Rani and Sky to a recently-unearthed totem pole on
display at a local museum. While messing about with the exhibit, Clyde
gets a livid splinter. He thinks nothing of it until the next day, when
suddenly everyone turns against him: Sarah Jane orders him out of her
house, Rani says she hates him, and even his mum wants nothing to do
with him. Only Sky seems immune, but while she tries to get to the
bottom of the strange sequence of events, Clyde tries to eke out a new
life for himself on the streets of London.

Sarah Jane is invited to a special advance preview of the SerfBoard, a
revolutionary new computer created by the reclusive Joseph Serf. She is
accompanied by Luke and Sky, who are startled to spot Serf
“glitching” during his presentation, as if he were some kind
of hologram. More chillingly, some of the other journalists in
attendance start to behave strangely, as if the SerfBoard were exerting
a malign influence on them. Soon Sarah Jane and her family discover that
there are aliens working in a secret subbasement at Serf Systems... but
there is more to their involvement than first appears.

Making History

For budgetary and logistical reasons, three of the six stories planned
for the fifth season of The Sarah Jane Adventures were actually
filmed alongside Season Four. This included the introduction of a new
regular character, Sky Smith, who was created to provide a younger
protagonist now that Luke, Clyde and Rani were growing up.

However, production of the remaining trio of adventures -- planned for
the spring of 2011 -- had to be postponed when Elisabeth Sladen revealed
to the production office that she was battling cancer. Following her sad
passing on April 19th, it was decided that no additional episodes of
The Sarah Jane Adventures would be made. The three remaining
stories were broadcast in October 2011 as a tribute to the show's
unforgettable star. The final episode of The Sarah Jane
Adventures, The Man Who Never
Was part two, aired on CBBC on October 18th.